This person

Widow Walker b. 1600

/ Kirstin Miller

Widow Walker 10th great grandmother on RootsMagic tree.

Widow Walker’s first name is unknown, her last name was probably Brown. She was born in England around 1600, married, then was widowed by 1635 when her two older children Sarah and James came to America with their uncle the widow’s brother, his name may have been John Brown. The widow and younger son Philip came to America about 1640. Widow Walker is on land records in 1643, 1644 and 1646 then she disappears with no more records. By 1658, son Philip is on land records. So her estimated death is in 1658 at about age 58. There are theories on her Brown family ancestors and her husband’s Walker family ancestors, but not much is proven, except her land.

Land Widow Walker and Zachariah Rhodes 1644 screenshot

The history of Rehoboth, page 25

In Vital Records of Rehoboth on page 911: “At a Town Meeting, the 31st day of the 4th month 1644, lots were drawn for a division of the woodland, between the plain and the town. Shares were drawn to the number of 58 as follows”: Widow Walker is the only female on the list of 58 which included The Schoolmaster, The Governor and The Pastor. Thomas Bliss 8th great grandpa of Elizabeth Speedy is also on the list.

Sources at HathiTrust
The history of Rehoboth, Bristol County, Massachusetts, page 25 Widow Walker and Zachariah Rhodes of Seakonk alias Rehoboth.

Vital record of Rehoboth, 1642-1896, page 911, Widow Walker No. 52

The story of my ancestors In America, page 8 Widow Walker settles in Seekonk, Rehoboth, land grants

 

John Drake b. 1585

/ Kirstin Miller

John Drake 12th great grandfather on RootsMagic tree.

John Drake was born in England about 1585. Past research on John Drake connected him to King Henry the 8th, Shakespeare and Sir Francis Drake, but it’s all been proven very unlikely. So John was born in England where he married Elizabeth and they had 5 children. In 1630 the Drakes arrived in America, sailing on the Mary and John. The passengers on this ship are considered the founders of Windsor, Connecticut. They lived in Dorchester first then the whole group moved to Windsor, Connecticut. John was a woodworker, a farmer and was active in town services. He was on several juries and on December 1, 1645 one of the constables in charge of gathering up knapsacks filled with powder and bullets, delivering those knapsacks to a Mr Talcott and keeping a written record of the ‘particulars so delivered’.

John died in an accident. Driving a cart full of corn ‘Something Scard the Cattle and they Set a running, and he Labouring to Stop them, by taking hold on the mare, was thrown’.

He wrote his will in 1659 and mentions each of his children.

John’s burial is unknown but his name is on the Founders of Windsor Monument at Palisado Cemetery in Windsor, Connecticut. The monument reads, “To the founders of Windsor and the First Congregational Church in Connecticut which came to America in the Mary and John with its pastor John Warham May 30, 1630, Settled in Dorchester, Massachusetts and migrated to Windsor in May and October 1635.”Snapshot for the Windsor Historical Society. 3 ancestors of Faber Miller are on the monument: John Drake, Thomas Dewey and Henry Wolcott

Sources

John Whipple b. 1617

/ Kirstin Miller

John Whipple 10th great grandfather on RootsMagic tree.

John Whipple was born in Essex, England in 1617. John age 14 or 15 arrived in Dorchester, now part of Boston, late summer of 1632. A servant of Israel Stoughton, John would have agreed to work 4-5 years in exchange for travel to America. His arrangement with Stoughton didn’t start out so well. October of 1632 John and another servant, Alex, were brought to court and ordered to pay Stoughton a certain sum each, for the powder and shot they’d wasted. In 1640 John was a Freeman, he’d worked off his debt. In 1641 he married Sarah, her last name is not known.

By 1658 he lived in Providence and stayed through King Philipps War, one of 27. These 27 who ’ staid’ were rewarded with a servant, an American Indian, captured in the war. Depending on their age the captured servants worked a certain time then had their freedom again. The Puritans believed this was an OK arrangement compared to other colonies that killed Indians captured in King Philips War. Through the years John was a carpenter, farmer, tavern keeper and chosen for lots of town services: selectman, treasurer, surveyor, etc. He was also on several committees, even in colonial America there were committees and meetings.

John Whipple's will 1682

John Whipple’s will 1682

John wrote his will May 8, 1682 with all his children named and son Joseph as executor. “Be it known to all persons to whom this may come, that I, John Whipple of the town of Providence, in the colony of Rhode Island, and Providence Plantations, in New England (Sen.) being in good measure of health, and in perfect memory, upon consideration of mortality, not knowing the day of my death, and having many children, and to prevent difference that otherwise may hereafter arise among them concerning my worldly estate, do see cause to make my will and do hereby dispose of all my estate in this world and do make my last Will and Testament.”

John died May 16 and is buried in Providence at North Burial Ground. He and Sarah have matching headstones, dated from 1740, not the 1680s.

 

Records of the Governor and company of the Massachusetts Bay, Volume 1 page 100 John Whipple and another in court.

The early records of the town of Providence, Volume 8 page 12 27 who ‘staid’ And Volume 15, page 161 details 

Rhode Island historic cemetery database
http://rihistoriccemeteries.org/newgravedetails.aspx?ID=215026

The early records of the town of Providence Volume 6 page 124-135 John Whipple’s will, inventory, probate.

John Pierce b. 1639

/ Kirstin Miller

John Pierce 9th great grandfather on RootsMagic tree.

John Pierce was born about 1639 in America or England. His last name could have been Pierce, Pearce or Pearse or any variation. He was in Boston in 1659 where he married Isabel her last name is unknown. John was a bricklayer and mason in Boston. Mary Pierce (8th great grandmother) had a birth record in Boston: Mary ye Daughter of John Pearse and of Isabell his wife borne 13 March 1661 or 62. The year is listed as 1661 or 1662 because of the worldwide switch from the Julian, of Julius Caesar, to Gregorian, of Pope Gregory 13, calendar. The calendar switch made some years Old Style or New Style, double year dates show this.

John wrote his will April 8 1690 and probably died soon after this. A lot of unknowns.

Pierce coat of arms

Dixit et Fecit: He said and he did.

The Pierce coat of arms shows Three Ravens. The Crest is a Dove with an olive branch.

Sources

Thomas Barnes b. 1602

/ Kirstin Miller

Thomas Barnes 11th great grandfather on RootsMagic tree

Thomas was born about 1602 in England and was living in Hingham, Massachusetts by 1637 when he and his (probable) brother Peter were on a handwritten list, First Settlers, of Hingham. About 1643 Thomas married Anna her last name is unknown. Thomas was a weaver and farmer. He was a freeman in 1645.

Barnes, Thomas headstone

Thomas Barnes d. 1672

His will was written April 29, 1671. He named his wife and children and his inventory included books, blankets, a cedar chest, yards of cloth, cotton and woolen yarn, 5 painted earthen ware dishes, weaving and farming supplies, livestock, bushels of produce, lots of land.

Thomas died in 1672 and is buried in Hingham Cemetery. The cemetery was founded in 1672 Thomas’s headstone was the first, this is noted on FindAGrave. The headstone is original but doesn’t mark his burial place. It was placed with others in a circle around the Founders Monument. The cemetery is right behind Old Ship Church, the only remaining 17th-century Puritan meeting house in America.

The ancestry of Emily Jane Angell, 1844-1910 page 195 Barnes section

At Ancestry. Massachusetts, Town and Vital Records, 1620-1988 Hingham Records of First Settlers image 2 of 81 Thomas and Peter Barnes 1637 Thomas d. Nov.29 1672

At HathiTrust.

Find a Grave memorial 51474179. Oldest original headstone in the cemetery. Headstone photos “Added by Hammer”

Old Ship Church on Wikipedia

Elmer Angell b. 1890

/ Kirstin Miller

Elmer Angell 2nd cousin 3 times removed on RootsMagic tree

Angell, Elmer Honor Roll

Private Elmer Angell

Elmer was born February 17 1890, the first and only child of Leander and Nancy Trobaugh Angell. On the 1900 US census Elmer was 10 years old, and in school. On the 1910 census he was a laborer and worked odd jobs with 0 weeks of not working. In 1917 Elmer was 27 and drafted in to World War 1. Elmer registered in June of 1917, with all men between the ages of 21 and 31. The draft card description: single with no dependents, automobile mechanic by trade, unemployed, medium height and build with blue eyes and brown hair.  In August of 1917 Elmer married Ella Tibbits in Albert Lea, Minnesota.

Elmer was one of the ’73 Registrants to Answer Roll Call in Allison’, to fill the quota from Butler County printed in the February 20 1918 Iowa (Greene) Recorder. The front page shows the 73, gives some facts about the 6,000,000 + men already dead in the war and includes SCHOOL NOTES: The High School are observing Na­tional Song Week by singing ‘America’ and ‘The Star Spangled Banner’ whenever the entire student body are together.

Angell, Elmer drafted

Tibbits, Ella M

Ella Tibbits Angell 

Five days later on Feb. 25 there was a patriotic rally. In May of 1918 Elmer was in Camp Logan Illinois, then in France by May, 1918. Private Angell served with Company D, 129th Infantry, of the 33rd Division. The 33rd Division was part of the Meuse-Argonne Offensive in France. Elmer was one of 26,277 American soldiers killed in this battle. His funeral was December 18, 1918 with burial (some time later) in Antioch Cemetery in Clarksville, Iowa.

Sources

  • Iowa (Greene) recorder, Digital Archives
    1918 Feb 20 page 1 of 8, column 3 top drafted
  • Photo via An honor roll containing a pictorial record of the gallant About page 19 

  • Minnesota county marriages 1860-1949 database with images at FamilySearch

  • 1910 United States Federal Census at Ancestry

  • Ella Tibbits photo, Public Ancestry.com photo Added by: K. Pike.

 

 

 

John Connable b. 1650

/ Kirstin Miller

John Connable 8th great grandfather on RootsMagic tree.

John Connable was born in England about 1650 or so. An Ancestry source “US Craftperson Files 1600-1995” shows his occupation as carpenter, joiner, artisan. This craftsman source leads to a 30 page paper “The Seventeenth Century Case Furniture of Essex County, Massachusetts, and Its Makers”. Author Benno Forman researched ‘the origins of the joined chest of drawers’ in early America. The conclusion, “only one man John Cunnable could have brought this style to Boston’. The author includes the ‘Garvan’ chest at Yale’s Art Gallery as evidence.

Connable chest of drawers

The Garvan chest at Yale

Connable, John joiner

Then only one man, John Connable, could have brought the style to New England.

Connable, John signature

John Cunabell, joiner of London

Besides his skills in woodworking John married 3 times, had a large family, fought in King Philips War, took the Oath of Allegiance, was a freeman and for several years a ’tithing man’ responsible for arresting travelers on Sunday – travel was forbidden on the Sabbath.

His death is recorded in a diary of the time, “10. On ye 10 in ye morning about 5 old Mr. Connabell, ye joiner, dyed and buryed on ye 13 day aged 74 years 3 months 15 days”.

Online
The Garvan chest at Yale Art Gallery

The article Seventeenth Century Case Furniture
image 14 of 31
Catalog page http://www.jstor.org/stable/1180998?origin=JSTOR-pdf

“The drawers of the Garvan chest and the SPNEA chest (fig. to), in contrast to those in all the joined furniture known to have been made elsewhere in Massachusetts before 1675, are held together with dovetails, as opposed to the usual, rural Anglo-American technique of nailing flushcut drawer sides into rabbets planed into the sides of the drawer fronts”

At Archive.org
Volume 15 page 201 Diary of Jeremiah Bumstead of Boston 1722-1727 in The New England historical and genealogical register 1861 Volume 15.

At Ancestry
U.S., Craftperson Files, 1600-1995

At HathiTrust
Volume 1 page 9 several pages. Genealogical memoir of the Cunnabell, Conable or Connable family.

Samuel Tefft b. 1643

/ Kirstin Miller

Samuel Tefft 9th great-grandfather on RootsMagic tree

Samuel was born near Kingstown, Rhode Island in 1643. His parents were John and Mary, he had a brother Joshua and 2 sisters. Samuel moved to Providence RI his first record there in 1676 when he’s named guardian of brother Joshua’s son. Joshua was accused of treason in the Great Swamp Fight of King Philips War and put on trial for fighting with the Narragansett tribe against New England colonies. Joshua was found guilty and hanged. That’s when Samuel and Jireh Bull (husband of Godsgift Arnold) were named guardians of Joshua’s son Peter.

In 1676 or 77 Samuel married Elizabeth Jenckes, daughter of Joseph, sister to Gov’r Jenckes. Samuel was a freeman in 1677 and by 1687 the Teffts had moved to Kingstown Rhode Island by 1687. Samuel wrote his will on March 16, 1725. He put his widow Elizabeth in charge of the estate and she received all moveables, the dwelling house, orchards, and more. Samuel’s kids and grandkids are named in this will. He owned a lot: lands, livestock, housewares, a sword and 2 linen wheels, 2 spinning wheels, a pair of worsted combs and yarn.

Samuel Tefft and Daniel Williams elected the Grand Jury, 1679

Samuel Tefft and Daniel Williams elected the Grand Jury, 1679

Naomi Smith b. 1720

/ Kirstin Miller

Naomi Smith 7th great grandmother on RootsMagic tree.
Naomi was born October 28, 1720 in Providence, Rhode Island. Her parents Israel and Elizabeth Arnold Smith and ancestors lived in 1636 RI.  Naomi married Oliver Angell- his family also of 1636 RI. Naomi was a teacher, ‘She had the satisfaction of knowing that her boys and girls were all unusually intelligent.’ Page 9. Israel Angell Colonel of the 2nd Rhode Island Regiment at HathiTrust. She’s described as a ‘small alert woman with remarkably keen dark eyes’. Naomi and Oliver had seven children and this Angell family lived right through the American Revolution. Naomi’s son Israel was a Colonel, son Hope helped with the draft. Naomi would have been part of the Homespun Movement. Americans tired of taxes on English imports, began protesting these imports, this included cloth. So before and during the war women upped their spinning and weaving to produce clothing, bedding, textiles, yarns  for their communities and the troops. 

Naomi Smith Angell headstone at Hope Angell Lot

Naomi Smith Angell headstone at Hope Angell Lot, RI

Naomi and Oliver both died in 1799, same year as George Washington. Naomi and Oliver are buried in a cemetery known as Rhode Island Hist. Cemetery North Providence #8, the Hope Angell Lot, or the Oliver Angell Lot. The cemetery was originally on an Angell farm and is now in a residential area between two houses. Photo shows the location on Google Maps. GPS coordinates: 41.8733900, -71.4574900 

Angell Cemetery in Rhode Island

Hope Angell Lot,. North Providence, Providence, Rhode Island, USA

 

Benedict Arnold b. 1615

/ Kirstin Miller

Benedict Arnold 11th great uncle on RootsMagic tree

This Benedict Arnold was born in 1615 in Ilchester, England and was 19 when he sailed with his family to Massachusetts Bay. (This is Benedict Arnold No. 1, his 2nd great grandson was Benedict No. 5 of the American then British army). By 1636 the Arnolds were in Providence. In 1640 Benedict married Damaris Westcott, her family probably sailed to America on the same ship with the Arnold family. Benedict was President then Governor of Rhode Island for 11 years and with Roger Williams a trusted interpreter of the American Indian language. While looking for information on Christiana Peake Arnold, Benedict’s mom, I found a book, ‘The burying place of Governor Arnold’ by Alice Brayton about the establishment, destruction and restoration of the Governor’s burial grounds. Images are from this book. It’s in the public domain, an ebook at HathiTrust.

Alice Brayton of Newport, “In the spring of 1946 as I was walking down Pelham Street in Newport, Rhode Island, I saw a dozen people and a red flag in front of a dilapidated late nineteenth century cottage. It was an auction. The house was for sale. “How about the land behind the house Is it included?” “Yes, the house and the land behind the house.” “But the land behind the house, they tell me, is the burying place of Governor Arnold and his family. You can’t auction off a burying ground. It isn’t decent.” (It isn’t even legal in Rhode Island, as I found out later.) However, I bid in the house and the land behind the house. In this casual fashion I acquired Governor Arnold’s graveyard”.

Benedict Arnold wrote in 1675, “I order that my kindred relations may as they die be buried at convenient distance about my grave.” For a time Arnold and his family were buried in this cemetery then it was kind of forgotten. In 1901 a report was presented on the condition of the site, with nothing done and when Alice Brayton came along in the 1940s the site was “desolation and tin cans”.

Arnold, Benedict Newport home

Newport the seat of the Honorable Benedict Arnold

The book has b&w photos from the 1940s and stories of the family. Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries has full color photos. Originally Benedict and Damaris’s headstones had large plaques or stones, those are long gone. Photo of the cemetery today at Rhode Island Historical Cemeteries.

Brayton, Alice. The Burying Place of Governor Arnold, Newport, R.I.: Privately printed, 1960.

Page 19 Rhode Island. Commissioner to inquire into the condition of the Benedict Arnold burial place, and James N. (James Newell) Arnold.Report of J. N. Arnold, Commissioner to Inquire Into the Present Condition of the Governor Benedict Arnold Burial Place, And the Title Thereto. Providence: E. L. Freeman & Sons, 1901